B’Tselem: Israel used ‘excessive’ force against Palestinian attackers

An Israeli rights group said Israeli security forces in some cases used “excessive and unwarranted” force in killing Palestinians terrorists and suspected assailants during the current wave of violence.

The B’Tselem group on Wednesday pointed to 12 incidents that paint “a grave and alarming picture of excessive and unwarranted use of lethal gunfire, which in some cases was tantamount to the summary execution of assailants or suspected assailants.”

In two other cases, it said soldiers delayed or denied medical care to Palestinian terrorists.

The group said Israeli troops fired at some Palestinian assailants even after they were wounded and no longer posed a threat.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the police response has been “proportional.”

“This wave of violent assaults is appalling, and clearly Israel’s security forces must protect the public and use the force necessary to that end, as determined by the circumstances,” the B’Tselem report said. “The law on this matter is also clear: shooting to kill is permissible only in cases that a person poses mortal danger to others. However, in at least some of the cases, firing at the assailants did not cease even after they no longer posed any danger.”

“Some were injured and lying motionless on the ground when they were shot dead,” according to the report. “In other cases, the very use of live gunfire seems excessive. Some cases were summary executions, without the benefit of law or trial.”

Among the cases mentioned is the scissor attack in central Jerusalem by two Palestinian schoolgirls, for which a police officer who shot the pair is being investigated. The report also points to an attempted attack on November 22, when a 16-year-old Palestinian girl apparently attempted to stab hitchhikers in the West Bank before Gershon Mesika, former head of the Samaria Regional Council, ran over her with his car.

“An Israeli civilian hit her with his car, and soldiers then shot her as she lay injured on the ground,” it said.

On November 6, Tharwat Ibrahim Suliman a-Sha’rawi, 73, was shot dead in Hebron in what the army said was an attempted car-ramming. “As she drew near the Zeid Gas Station at Halhul she nearly ran into soldiers standing in the road. As the video footage shows, the soldiers fired at the car that did not alter its speed as it approached them, and they continued firing at the car even after it passed them and entered the gas station.”

Soldiers said they later found a knife in the car.

B’Tselem also noted a stabbing attack in Hebron in October, in which a Palestinian assailant dressed as a journalist stabbed a soldier. “Video footage of the incident shows one of the soldiers firing at al-Awawdeh after he was already lying wounded and motionless on the ground,” it said.

The B’Tselem report also accused the Israeli army of denying medical treatment to Palestinian attackers after they were injured by IDF fire on October 25 and November 25.

Since mid-September, Palestinian terrorists have killed 19 Israelis in near-daily attacks. At least 115 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, of whom 78 Israel has identified as assailants.